miracle that we'd never be able to repeat. And yet, that miraculously low casualty count was nearly two and a half times as high as what we're experiencing now.

If you watch an hour of cable news today, or read a newspaper, you'll probably encounter several references to the unprecedented number of U.S. military personnel dying in Iraq. Judging from the shift in public opinion, the American people are swallowing this idea hook, line, and sinker. Well, the idea is fifty-percent accurate. Our losses in Iraq are without precedent. They're so phenomenally low that there is no remotely parallel example in history. But you won't see that on the front page of any newspapers.

I know this column is going to bring me at least a few hundred emails from people who think I'm trying to conceal human pain and tragedy behind a wall of numbers. They'll call me a heartless warmonger, and ask me how I can be oblivious to the death and suffering in Iraq.

I'm not oblivious. I have friends over there, and family, and men and women whom I've trained with and served with. I don't want any of them to die, and I don't want any of them to suffer so much as a single injury, a single scar, or a single nightmare. I pray continuously for their safety, and for the safety of the thousands whose names I'll never know. I pray for the Iraqi people, who deserve the opportunity to live in peace and freedom.

I worry that public opinion will force us to abandon Iraq. America is a representative democracy. The will of the people should be heard, and popular opinion should influence the actions of our government. But I think the growing opposition to our presence in Iraq is based on an utterly inaccurate appraisal of our losses there. We're gearing up to make an enormously important national decision based on false information. If we're not very careful, the repercussions of that decision will spread far beyond the borders of Iraq. I have this horrible feeling that two years from now, or five, we're going to look back at this moment in history and wonder how we let the bad guys win.